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What’s this, the new BlackBerry? Woah, it has no keyboard. And…did it just click? You’ve never clicked a screen before, is that supposed to happen? Is it supposed to feel so…tiring? And why is this screen wiggling around, am I supposed to be seeing the circuit board? Why is it so heavy; the iPhone isn’t this heavy? The interface is pretty neat, but why are page transitions taking so long. Did it just flip orientations on me? I didn’t even move it. Wait, now I did move it and the orientation isn’t following. What’s going on, I thought this was supposed to be an iPhone killer? This is what Verizon is putting their muscle behind? Really?

And so goes our first ten minutes with the BlackBerry Storm. RIM, the company that said touchscreens were a fad, has thrown their hat in game with their latest and “greatest” device. The only problem is that this device will alienate their customer base. We have no doubt it will sell, after all how many posers are carrying BlackBerries now just to say they have one, unaware of what BlackBerry Internet Service or Desktop Manger even is. Too many, and the Storm will only exaggerate that. But the true BlackBerry user, the enterprise customer who would just as soon trade in their wife then their beloved Curve, they won’t last five minutes with this. It’s unstable. Typing is atrocious and unbelievably inaccurate (seriously, there were times when we couldn’t even decipher what we had just typed.)

Ok, it's not all bad and for those users that don't actually use a BlackBerry for its BlackBerry functions it's a pretty good device. The browser is pretty awesome. The new interface has eyecandy galore, although there’s really nothing fundamentally new. “Verizon” isn’t plastered all over the device. Videos look fantastic on the 3.2” crystal clear display, and with 1GB of internal storage and an included 8GB microSD card there is plenty room to store them. It has an autofocusing 3.2 megapixel camera with flash that can record QVGA videos. It’s a quad-band GSM device, and VZW will eventually provide you with the subsidy unlock code, meaning that you can conceivably use it on T-Mobile or AT&T here in the States, though you won’t have 3G data. But it’s just…off.

Design:

The first thing you notice is how heavy the Storm is. It’s nearly an ounce heavier than the iPhone and Bold, and a full ounce and a half heavier than the Diamond and Curve. We appreciate heft for the sake of quality, and in fact have taken some criticism for knocking devices that are too light, but the Storm is just plain heavy. It’s also wide; its 2mm narrower than the iPhone, but 6, 9 and 12mm wider than the Curve, Dare and Diamond, respectively. The 3.2” display makes it tall, but it’s a full 7mm taller than the Instinct which also has a 3.2” screen.

Since we have extensive experience with all types of phones, we rarely see something that makes us gasp or eagerly wait for it to see the light of day. HTC’s Touch HD is one of those devices. When the world’s leading manufacturer announces its most feature-rich phone ever people stop and take note, and we were no different. The Touch HD has the potential to become the best ever device running WinMo, but can it live up to that potential?

Design:

Let’s analyze its name – Touch HD. The first word shows that the device belongs to the Touch series, known for its optimized interface in order to be finger-friendly. But what does HD stand for? HTC doesn’t explain it but we know it very well - High-definition, i.e. high resolution images/videos.

This is the key feature for the Taiwanese monster. The large 3.8” display has a WVGA resolution of 480x800 pixels. To give you a better idea we’ll tell you that this is 4 times larger than OMNIA’s (standard for widescreen) and 2.5 than iPhone’s resolution – impressive! This not only gives better DPI (dots per inch) ratio, but is handy for viewing text and Internet pages, visualizing more content. The color reproduction is at a good level when viewing pictures despite the OS limitation of 65,536 colors. We are impressed with its sensitivity;it’s resistive, meaning it reacts to pressure rather than touch like the iPhone. While it compares favorably in sensitivity, the iPhone is much better in direct sunlight. The Touch HD turns into a 3.8” mirror.

Unexpectedly, SMS messages have become the most popular mobile service. Who would have thought that people will write messages in a peculiar way on these small keyboards? Years later, phones are much more advanced and the variety is greater, but this service continues to hold the first place. So it should be expected that developers will try to make it more user-friendly, shouldn’t it? Until recently, the availability of a full keyboard was something typical only for business phones, but manufacturers began to realize that the ordinary customers also like using SMS, e-mail and chat and QWERTY keyboards have made their way into every level of consumer devices.

Design:

Thanks to this, we have models like the Nokia E63. Based on the popular business smartphone E71, a full keyboard is now available to everyone. Its appearance is more casual, replacing the metal with a high-quality plastic. Hopefully, the build quality doesn’t suffer from this and is still very high-end. The colors are also more liberal and instead of the boring grey and black, here we find the fresher blue or red. The E63 has gotten a bit thicker and is now 13 mm, instead of the E71’s 10 mm. There is virtually no change in the other dimensions and as a whole the size is pretty decent for a QWERTY phone. Speaking of the keyboard, we have to mention that the keys are very handy, although a bit small. Unfortunately, once again, the bottom row of keys isn’t shifted to the right so you’ll have to get used to it in order to avoid mistakes. When it comes to buttons, we have to note the total lack of such on the sides – no volume rocker and no power key.

Windows Mobile has always been a powerful but clunky OS, but recently we’ve seen manufacturer efforts to clean it up and make it more user-friendly. Sony Ericsson has thus far stayed out of the WinMo realm, but with the Xperia X1 they are making a splash on both fronts. They have developed a new panel interface to match the X1’s svelte design. It has the rich feature set you’d expect from a high-end device, with many connectivity options and a 480x800 high resolution display. The question is, can it live up to the bar HTC has set with their Touch series?Included in the box you’ll find:

Li-poly battery

AC Adapter

USB Cable

4GB microSDHC card

Stereo headphones

Extra stylus

Design:

The X1 is a very well designed device, with a large WVGA display and full QWERTY keyboard. It is constructed of brushed metal which leads to a very hefty weight of 5.1oz. It comes in both silver and black, our review unit was silver but we prefer the black finish personally. It is strikingly narrow, especially when compared to a similar device like the Touch Pro.